The pandemic has affected almost every industry, and education is no different. While most universities quickly migrated to online teaching, the biggest challenge was conducting online examinations.
According to a study, 73% of students cheat during online exams. Although this number can be reduced to 13% by using advanced technologies such as remote proctoring and secure browsing there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Many versatile online exam software ensure to incorporate advanced remote proctoring methods to ensure objective evaluation of online tests.
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Challenges Faced In Conducting Online Examinations
We need to understand cheating is not the only problem universities face while transitioning to online examinations. For instance, whether students have a strong enough internet connection to participate in the exam is also a concern.
And that’s what we will discuss today. We will talk about the five major problems universities face while shifting to online examinations.
Let’s get started!
1. Increases the Chances of Cheating
As mentioned above, on average, 73% of students cheat during online examinations. While you can do your best to adopt the advanced technologies to prevent students from Googling the questions, you may not be able to stop them from using books and notes.
Even with the webcam on, it is easy to look at the notes secretively and find answers. However, as a university administrator, you need to accept that you cannot stop all the students from cheating as you could do in physical examinations.
Instead, you can try putting an honor code at the top of every exam. Talk about why students should not take assistance from outside sources to answer the questions. Encourage students to give their best in every exam but without cheating.
2. Vulnerable to Bandwidth Problems
A good internet connection is a must for online examinations. However, almost every home has more than two systems competing for bandwidth (considering offices are shut and parents are working from home).
And, if the internet connection is already slow, then chances are the online exam won’t even load.
Another common problem in online examinations is unexpected crashes due to slow internet. Besides, when the internet is slow, the learning management system cannot connect to the server to save the answer.
Imagine sitting in an exam with the clock ticking and your internet giving you a hard time. Sounds tough, right? This is surely one of the biggest challenges of giving online exams from home.
3. Limited IT Resources
In the last two years, every teacher and student has learned how to use a laptop, go to the web, and start/join online classes.
However, when it comes to conducting online examinations in a secured environment, it’s a different game. You need to ensure no student impersonation during online examinations while still protecting their information (registration number, login information, etc.).
You need to hire IT experts to manage and oversee the online examination process or invest in a high-end online examination management system to cope with this.
But again, if you choose the latter, you will need to spend time learning about the ins and outs of the system to prevent issues during exams.
Also, depending on the number of students appearing for the exam simultaneously, you will need multiple people to ensure everything goes smoothly and attend to issues as and when they arise.
4. Places Undue Burden On Students Due to Time Constraints
When it comes to subjective exams, students need to type hundreds (if not thousands) of words. However, it is worth noting that not every student has a good typing speed. So, even though they know the answer, they might not be able to complete the paper on time.
Besides, most students are habituated to the physical exam format, where they can view all the questions at once and start answering the ones they are confident. In the remaining time, they try the questions they are not very sure.
However, when it comes to online examinations, juggling between questions could take a significant amount of time. As a result, they might miss several questions even when they know the answer.
This could mean a low passing average for universities even when the students are bright. And no university wants its students to fail (or get low numbers) just because they could not type fast.
5. Evaluations
Every university has its way (or guidelines) for evaluating papers and other examination coefficients.
Sadly, most online examination systems lack this level of customizability. As a result, you will have to optimize your existing guidelines to suit foundations and ensure unbiased marking.
Even with customization, no online examination system can imitate the accuracy of physical evaluation. This prevents universities and teachers from understanding their students better. In contrast, physical evaluation enables teachers to identify students who are weak on certain topics to offer additional classes to them.
Versatile examination software such as ExamOnline, however, do have advanced digital evaluation capabilities with online on-screen marking abilities that ensure accurate assessment.
Benefits of an Online Examination System for Universities
While the rapid growth of the online exam software can be attributed to the limitations due to the pandemic, it also offers a myriad of benefits to schools and universities.
Source: examonline.in
Here are four significant advantages of online examination software.
1. Smart Proctoring
An excellent online examination tool has innovative proctoring features that minimize the chances of cheating. The AI-enabled intelligent cheating prevention system prevents suspicious activities (such as preventing users from opening a new tab) during the examination.
Sophisticated online exam systems such as ExamOnline provide considerable warnings on pre-defined tolerance levels to facilitate high standards of exam proctoring. AI-enabled remote proctoring brings down costs and dual camera support for 360-degree monitoring ensure fair and objective test assessment. However, as mentioned above, no tool can guarantee 100% cheating-free exams.
2. Multi-factor Authentication
Eliminate the risk of student impersonation by using multi-factor authentication. It includes requiring students to click their picture with their ID card in their hand.
3- Reduced Costs
Universities don’t need to print question papers, answer sheets, or spend on faculty for investigation. It also saves a lot of time spent on these things. Although you need experts to keep an eye on the examination, human intervention is kept minimum. You can save logistics costs and prevent leakage chances, also minimize transport expenses – a smart way to bring down operation costs.
4- No Geographic Limitations
Given the current global scenario, most students have returned to their homes (even those in different countries). An online examination system allows every student to take part in the examination irrespective of their physical location. This ensures everyone’s safety while preventing any disruptions in the examinations.
Final Words
Given the present situation, online examinations are better than physical tests. You would not want your students to suffer because online examination systems are not very robust.
However, you can choose a good online examination system to simplify the process and trust your students not to cheat. Also, ensure that you have people who can attend to technical problems during examinations.
Are there more challenges you face (or have faced) while shifting to online examinations? Let us know in the comments.
Rohit Rajpal is an accomplished writer and data enthusiast passionate about unraveling the intricacies of information and data. With a deep understanding of the subject matter, Rohit strives to simplify complex concepts and make them accessible to readers. Rohit’s expertise in the field and his knack for clear and concise communication make his blog an invaluable resource for those seeking clarity in the data-driven world.
